Last Friday, the Noosa District State High School Year 9 cricket team played in the StreetSmarts T20 cricket Sunshine Coast Regional finals series.
After making their way through the pool phase with relative ease, they had plenty of confidence entering the semi-final against St Andrew’s Anglican College.
“However, we could only muster up nine players due to Covid illnesses,“ NDSHS HPE teacher and cricket coach Murray Gordon said.
But in true cricket sportsmanship, St Andrew’s provided two of their players to assist with the fielding.
St Andrew’s won the toss and batted first.
“We dominated quite early with some excellent bowling from Travis who took four wickets,“ Mr Gordon said.
“He was well supported by Carys and Nathan who got their wickets with some accurate bowling.
“At the change of innings, we were confident that we could chase down the meagre total of 91 and this didn’t prove to be too much of a struggle for our talented opening batsman, Joe, who batted steadily throughout the whole innings.
“He was well supported by a blazing innings from Riley who was obviously keen to finish the game early, hitting 20 runs in our 12th over to win the game prematurely.
“This quick, crushing defeat also gave our team some extra rest time before the final late in the day.“
The Sunshine Coast grand final saw the best of the north coast versus the best of the southern end of the coast.
Mathew Flinders Anglican College progressed to the final based on their semi final win last week and came into the final fresh; unlike the Noosa District SHS team who had to back up and play a double match in one day.
Flinders batted first and their two openers attacked from the start with one lad hitting 72 from only 36 balls.
This certainly made the NDSHS team aware of the talent that they were up against, particularly when the final total amassed an amazing 178 runs from their allocated 20 overs.
This was the highest total the state school team had to chase in the carnival, but the Noosa team backed themselves after a half time inspirational talk from their coach about believing in their own talent.
The competent opening duo of Joe and Angus certainly didn’t let their team mates down as they peeled off a brilliant start, scoring at nearly 10 an over.
By the 10th over drinks break, the duo had accumulated 95 runs without a wicket loss.
Angus, the more aggressive opener, was out to prove that he could also score quickly and hit 71 runs, allowing Riley to smash many more boundaries and sixes after him.
“But it was our wicket-keeping, talented opener Joe, who batted through the whole innings again with 62 runs, set up our victory with only three balls to spare,“ Mr Gordon said.
It was a very exciting, high scoring match and the first Sunshine Coast Regional silverware for many decades for the Noosa District SHS team. The players, coach, parents, supports and their possum mascot were ecstatic with the victory as they were labelled the underdogs in the final series.
The NDSHS team will now enter the highly decorated area final later in the year against one of the other regional winners.
“I am sure that, with continued training, this team should be well placed in the state champions rankings,“ Mr Gordon said.
“Thanks to all our supporters and congratulations to the team.“
